Analysis of Sports Injuries from Winter Olympic and Winter Youth Olympic Games / 中国康复理论与实践

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the characteristics of athletes' sports injuries during the Winter Olympic and Winter Youth Olympic Games. Methods:The information of registered athletes during the 2010, 2014 Winter Olympics and 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games, including the injury numbers of each sport, damage sites, types and severity of injuries were collected, and the epidemiological characteristics were analyzed. Results:A total of 6370 person-time registered athletes were collected and 789 sports injuries were recorded. The injury rate per 1000 registered athletes was 123.9. An average of 11% of athletes was injured at least once. There was a significant difference in the injury rate among these events (χ2 = 12.301, P = 0.002). Women were more likely to be injured than men (χ2 = 5.220, P = 0.022). The top three sports with the highest injury rate were snowboarding (23.9%), freestyle skiing (23.2%) and Bobsleigh (18.0%); the top three sports with the largest number of injuries were ice hockey (160 person-time, 20.3%), alpine skiing (128 person-time, 16.2%) and snowboarding (113 person-time, 14.3%). The top three most injured sites were knee (54 person-time, 13.6%), head (41 person-time, 10.3%) and lumbar spine/lower back (27 person-time, 6.8%); the top three types of injury were contusion/haematoma/bruise (123 person-time, 30.9%), sprain (dislocation/subluxation or ligamentous rupture) (71 person-time, 17.8%) and strain (muscle rupture/tear or tendon rupture) (47 person-time,11.8%). A total of 251 injuries (31.8%) were expected to result in time loss for the athlete, 81 out of whom were severe injuries (32.3%). Conclusion:There is a mass of sport injuries in winter sports events with different types and severities. The incidence of injury varies with sports, and it is focused on snowboarding, freestyle skiing and Bobsleigh, ice hockey and alpine skiing. It is needed to research the technical characteristics of specific sports, damage risk factors and mechanism to reduce the sports injuries, and to construct green channels for sports injuries, to promote the recovery of function.